Lori Bennear, professor of energy economics and policy, was named Stanback dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment in a Tuesday announcement by Provost Alec Gallimore. Her term will begin July 1.
As interim dean of the Nicholas School since 2023, Bennear will formally succeed Toddi Steelman, vice president and vice provost for climate and sustainability, who served as dean from 2018 to 2023. Bennear was appointed following a national search conducted by a committee including faculty, administrators, students and alumni from across the University.
“I believe deeply in the Nicholas School’s mission to train the next generation of environmental leaders and to produce cutting-edge scholarship that helps us better understand our environment and provide solutions to some of our most pressing environmental challenges,” Bennear wrote in a Tuesday email to The Chronicle.
She stated that her tenure’s main priorities will be elevating the school’s research and expanding its educational programs.
Bennear hopes to partner with the Pratt School of Engineering and departments within the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences to “accelerate the use of AI in environmental research.” She shared enthusiasm about how the technology can help scholars “measure, monitor and model earth, environmental and marine systems.”
She also hopes to expand environmental education among undergraduates and expressed support for the upcoming launch of a new Master’s of Business, Climate and Sustainability program, a joint degree with the Fuqua School of Business.
Bennear noted that she began her deanship in a “challenging time for higher education.”
“Federal funding for scientific research is under threat, and this is particularly true for research on topics like climate change that the current administration does not favor,” she wrote.
She asserted that it will be “incumbent upon” her and the Nicholas School to identify new sources of funding and collaborate with local and state governments, as well as the private sector, to provide jobs for students and “critical” environmental leadership.
“This is not new for the Nicholas School,” Bennear wrote. “Our students have been shifting toward the private sector for the last decade, and our faculty are increasingly interested in potential commercial applications of their science to help drive environmental solutions.”
Bennear joined the University as an assistant professor of environmental economics and policy at the Nicholas School in 2004. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Occidental College, a master’s degree from Yale University and a doctorate from Harvard University.
Before being named interim dean, Bennear served as executive vice dean, where she oversaw the Nicholas School’s academic and internal operations. She also chaired the University’s Priorities Committee from 2017 to 2019 and has twice won the Nicholas School’s Teacher of the Year Award.
A scholar herself, Bennear’s research focuses on analyzing the effectiveness of environmental policies on a wide range of issues through a quantitative lens, with many of her projects featured in prominent academic journals.
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Winston Qian is a Pratt sophomore and health/science editor for the news department.